A Warm Bed For A Cold Night

Do you live in an area where the temperature drops below freezing often and especially at night?

Do you leave your dog in an outside kennel over night?
If so, here is a short list of things you can do to help insure that your dog is keeping dry, and warm enough to stay out for an extended period safely.

1. Make sure your dogs have a decent house to sleep in. It should not be big, or overly tall. It should be just big enough for your dog to stand up in, turn around in, and lay in comfortably. Being just enough room for your dog, will allow his body heat to become trapped inside, and will help to keep him warmer.
2. It should be insulated.  Even some of the plastic ones have insulation.
3. The house should be placed in a barn or outdoor building protecting it from the wind, rain, snow, etc., preferably with a eastern/southern exposure.
4. The house should be placed on a platform which will keep it off the damp ground.
5. Clean straw or hay should be used for bedding. It dries quickly and is soft for them to sleep on. Cloth bedding gets wet and stays wet, when outside in cold temps. It will get wet, then moldy and that's unhealthy for your dog.
6. If you can put a flap on the door to prevent drafts, that's a huge help.
7. And last, if you have really cold, sub-zero weather, you can buy heated pads that can be used outside, but not in the wet weather. 

Our old barn is our kennel. Inside the barn is the individual kennel runs,  which have a run leading to outside. There is a door for each that can be locked closed when it snows hard or temp drops. Each kennel has a heating pad for them when it is very cold, like  below 20 degrees. Dan has added countless "flaps" to the doors of the houses only to come out the next day and find them ripped to shreds. Yep, it seems that a Gordon Setter likes a room with a view! When it drops below about 10 degrees, we bring them up to the house where we have a "puppy whelping" room built off the side of the house. Inside, we can house 4 dogs in a heated room. Of course, as I said this is the "puppy whelping" room that doubles for emergency dog kennels.  We also have 2 kennels inside the house for 2 more dogs. Up here in Montana, it can drop to 20 or 30 degrees below zero in a day and that's dangerous weather for your dogs. With 5 dogs we have to be ready.

Make sure your dog has the protection he needs to stay warm and safe through these frosty cold nights of winter.